Conventional pneumatic tires are designed to perform for relatively long periods of time. In many cases, automobile tires are now expected to have a useful service life of 30,000, 50,000, or 70,000 miles. However, even long-life pneumatic tires are subject to air pressure losses due to puncture by nails and other sharp objects, temperature changes, and/or diffusion of air through the tire itself.
Since air diffusion reduces tire pressure over time, pneumatic tires may repeatedly become underinflated. Accordingly, drivers must in turn repeatedly act to maintain recommended air pressures in the vehicle tires to avoid reduced fuel economy, tire life, and/or vehicle braking and handling performance. Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) are automated systems that have been proposed to warn drivers when the air pressure in the vehicle tires is significantly low. Such systems, however, remain dependent upon a driver taking remedial action, when warned, to re-inflate a tire to the recommended pressure. It had been desirable in the prior art to incorporate an air maintenance feature within a pneumatic tire that will maintain recommended air pressure without requiring bothersome driver intervention.
To this end, air maintenance tire (AMT) systems have been developed. For example, an AMT system typically includes one or more pumps that act to increase the air pressure in the vehicle tires on demand. Such systems and related components are more fully described by way of example in Published U.S. Patent Application Nos. 2015/0314658A1 and 2015/0314657A1, which are owned by the same Assignee as the present invention, that is, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
In the development of air maintenance tire systems, it is necessary to simulate the environment of the systems to accurately predict the behavior of the system and its components. In addition, it is beneficial to simulate the environment of the systems to accurately test certain components of the systems, such as pumps, control valves or regulators, filters, check valves, and the like. In the prior art, no simulators have been available that accurately simulate the environment of an air maintenance tire system.
Therefore, it is therefore desirable to provide an air maintenance tire pump simulator, which simulates the environment of an air maintenance tire system to enable prediction of the behavior of the system and testing of components of the system.